1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of producing separable slide fasteners from an elongate slide fastener chain, and more particularly to a method of finishing separable slide fasteners so as to be produced either individually or as an elongate product composed of such separable slide fasteners joined end to end.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Generally, there are known three methods of manufacturing separable slide fasteners from an elongate slide fastener chain. One of the known methods is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,081,462. According to the disclosed method, the separable slide fasteners are produced as an elongate joined product for allowing them to be sequentially sewn to garments highly efficiently. More specifically, slits are formed at element-free portions in an elongate slide fastener chain, and insertion pins, box pins, sliders, and boxes are manually attached to the chain through the slits.
The other two methods are directed to the fabrication of separable slide fasteners as individual product units. According to one method which is shown in Japanese Patent Publication No. 49-44243, a slider and a box integral with a box pin are attached to one of a pair of separate slide fastener stringers through the leading end thereof, whereas an insertion pin is attached to the other slide fastener stringer at the leading end thereof. Thereafter, the slide fastener stringers are cut off to prescribed lengths, which are then manually combined into a separable slide fastener. Japanese Patent Publication No. 58-50721 reveals the other method in which insertion and box pins are attached to the leading ends of two slide fastener stringers, and a slider is threaded over the stringers to interengage some coupling elements. With the insertion and box pins aligned with each other, a box is fitted over the pins and fixed to the box pin. Thereafter, the slide fastener stringers are severed into a unit fastener product.
The conventional method for producing an elongate piece of joined separable slide fasteners is primarily performed manually, and hence the manufactured separable slide fasteners are apt to be irregular in quality. The manual process is poor in efficiency. In the two methods of manufacturing individual separable slide fastener sliders, the box and insertion pins cannot be attached properly if the severed leading ends of the slide fastener stringers are improperly shaped or otherwise deformed. These two methods have been unsatisfactory in the mass-production of uniform separable slide fasteners.